Patent DE 29 08 400 discloses a cargo deck of this kind for a large-scale aircraft, in which a total of six rows of mounting profiles are installed in the long direction of the aircraft. Within the mounting profiles are mounted support rollers, latch elements, power drive units (PDUs) and other such functional elements. Between the mounting profiles floor elements are attached, i.e. floor plates lacking functional elements, or also ball mats—that is, floor elements in which ball elements are installed close to one another, so that items of freight can be pushed over them in any desired direction.
When such a cargo space is being loaded, the containers or pallets are transported in through a cargo-space door and then, traveling on the rollers disposed in the mounting profiles, are moved to a storage position within the cargo space, where they are held in place by means of latch elements that may be disposed in the mounting profiles or on the cargo deck between mounting profiles. Such containers or pallets are standardized and adapted to the cross-sectional shape of the cargo space. In this regard basically two different types of containers or pallets can be distinguished, namely those that extend over the entire width of the cargo space and those that are only half as wide, so that two such containers can be fastened side by side in the cargo space.
This known cargo deck has an extraordinarily elaborate configuration.